July 3-10, 2006 issue - Two years ago Bryan Singer walked away from the "X-Men" franchise he had created to direct "Superman Returns." Good call. Early reviews, including NEWSWEEK's, have been raves. As the film begins, Superman (Brandon Routh) has returned from a five-year search for Krypton to discover that Lois Lane (Kate Bosworth) has a 5-year-old son, a devoted boyfriend (James Marsden) and a Pulitzer Prize for writing the column "Why the World Doesn't Need Superman." Lex Luthor (Kevin Spacey), meanwhile, is hatching a plan for global destruction.

In casual conversation, Singer can be charming, hilarious company. During interviews, however, he can be twitchy and guarded, like a man who's just been read his Miranda rights. Over lunch in the Warner Bros. commissary last week, the director, 40, was exhausted but cheerful and talkative on most, if not all, subjects.

Superhero movies are usually made for teenage boys, but "Superman Returns" feels more emotional.

BRYAN SINGER: Oh, yeah. This is my first chick flick. There's plenty of stuff for the boys, but in the past I've made movies that boys have to drag their girlfriends to. This one shows my friends that I have a romantic side. They have accused me of having affairs with my movies, to the point where [they take the place of] human romance.

Superman is so lonely in this film. It feels personal.

There's definitely something about his dilemma that I can identify with. I'm adopted. I'm an only child. I have a very strong relationship with my parents, but that sense of aloneness has always been a part of my life.

You were scheduled to direct "X-Men 3" for Fox, but you left to make "Superman Returns" for Warner Bros. instead. Did you have a twinge of regret about leaving a huge franchise that you had helped create?

More than a twinge. Leaving the "X-Men" universe was an enormous step for me because I love it, and it was a part of my life for six years. It was a Friday when I pitched [Warner Bros.] the Superman story I wanted to do. I left, and I knew that they were going to put my deal together very quickly—and that meant that I was going to be leaving the "X-Men" franchise. I got in my car, and I hit play on the CD player, and Peter Gabriel's "Solsbury Hill" came on, which he wrote about leaving the band Genesis. I've had two panic attacks in my life. One was when I found out my stepmother had cancer, and the second was three weeks before production began on "X-Men 2." And now I'm listening to this song and driving and I feel another one coming on—this tightness in my stomach, this terrible physical constriction that won't go away. I got home and just lay in my bed for an hour, and a friend came over and we talked and sort of circumvented it. But it was all very traumatic.

So why leave "X-Men"?

It was all for emotional and artistic reasons. Richard Donner's "Superman" showed that you could take a comic book and make it into an epic movie. Had I not been such a fan of "Superman," I never would have been involved with "X-Men." I wouldn't even have considered it.

You burned a bridge at Fox.

They were upset.

They were livid.

Yeah, I heard that I was "thrown off the lot," but that was exaggerated. I mean, the last time I checked, my parking space was still there.

Your movie has been plagued by budget rumors. At one point, reports were that it was over $300 million.

My production budget on "Superman Returns" was $204 million. The approved budget was $184.5 million. We had projected overages for visual effects, and there was a sequence that I wanted that was going to cost an extra $2.3 million. So the hard, honest number is $204 million. It's aggravating, because all of my movies have been fiscally responsible. If anything, I go out of my way to figure out how to operate with financial constraints because I think good ideas come out of that. I heard a story about the making of "Rocky"—that they couldn't afford extras for the ice-skating rink, so they changed the script so that on Rocky and Adrian's first date, Rocky paid the guy $10 to let them use the rink for 10 minutes. And that's one of the most magical dates in film history. Now, that being said, I still have to make Superman fly.

What part of filmmaking do you most dislike?

Probably the part I'm best at—casting. Having to reject people all day has some weird cumulative emotional affect. The only thing worse would be being rejected all day, which is why I never became an actor. That, and the fact that I can't act.

Your sexuality has come up in the press lately. The L.A. Times and Entertainment Weekly have published stories that refer to you as "openly gay," and speculate about Superman's appeal to gay men.

[Silence.] I try not to talk about my personal life in the press, but I can confidently tell you that "Superman Returns" is the most heterosexual movie I've ever made.

Superman was created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, two young Jewish men. Do you think that's significant?

Yeah, there's a bit of the Moses story in the origin of Superman—the parents who send their child downriver to fulfill his destiny. There's a very strong Christian allegory as well, particularly in our film, which is about saviors and sacrifice. I was very conscious of that. But [Siegel and Shuster] were born of immigrants, and Superman is very much the ultimate immigrant. That's what I think it's really about—being an outsider.

Did you feel like an outsider growing up?

Oh, yeah. I graduated high school with a GPA of 1.9. I'm dyslexic, so I can't read very fast. I'm terrible with math, and I get distracted easily. My parents hate when I talk about this, but that's the way it was. I was beat up a lot. I had big hair. I wore the same pair of jeans every day.

Superman searches for his origins in this film. Have you thought about finding your birthparents?

Not for a long time. I have such incredible parents that I don't think about it. I prefer to imagine that my birthparents were Kryptonian royalty or something. Besides, I'm such a hypochondriac, the last thing I'd want to know is their medical histories.

You turned 40 last year. How was that?

The night of my birthday it was wonderful. I was drunk. It was in the weeks afterward that the midlife crisis set in. I'm very un-grown-up. I live like a college student.

You talked about your having affairs with your movies. Do you want to have a relationship?

I think so. I don't really know. You can say you're not ready, and then suddenly the right person is sitting across from you. Or maybe you discover that the right person is two people. That's the conundrum that Lois Lane faces in this movie.

It's interesting to watch you on set, because you are surrounded by all these co-workers and friends, but you're still alone most of the time. It's as if you're separate from them, too.

It's this weird combination. It's a dream come true to be surrounded by people you love, and yet if the ship goes down, you're the captain and you have to go with it. That's the loneliness of the job. They don't call it "a Bryan Singer film" for nothing.

Our critic here in Winnipeg, Canada gave it 4 out 5 stars.
She is usually way too critical with these kind of films so we were all shocked to see such a great review of this film. Will probably go see it tonight.

I saw it yesterday afternoon and, sadly, I was not impressed. I was really looking forward to this movie, especially since I LOVE the first two Superman movies.

I have to admit that I completely agree with the ending of Roger Ebert's review, as follows:

"But when the hero, his alter ego, his girlfriend and the villain all seem to lack any joy in being themselves, why should we feel joy at watching them?"

I felt exactly the same way. The characters are miserable. This is a depressing, grim movie. There's no joy, no humor in the film or the characters. They just mope. Kevin Spacey is one of my favorite actors and I love him in almost everything, but even I have to admit that Gene Hackman's Lex Luthor was so much more enjoyable to watch. Perhaps, had the rest of the movie had humor or light then Kevin Spacey's more evil, malevolent Lex might have been good balance, but the whole film is so dark, I sorely missed Gene Hackman's sarcastic, playful Lex.

The film itself is so dark that, literally, sometimes it was even hard to SEE Superman. He just disappeared into the backdrop. Though I never read the comic book, from what I do know, I never thought that Superman was supposed to be this dark. Batman, yes. Superman, no.

And how much did I miss the Christopher Reeve-Margot Kidder chemistry! I thought Kate Bosworth was a casting joke when I first heard about it, and boy was I right. She's got about as much Lois Lane in her as I do . . . and I'm a shy, quiet guy! And Christopher Reeve played his dual roles with humor and flirtation. Brandon Routh is ok, but most of the time he seems like he's modeling on a runway rather than acting.

I know some will probably think I'm just glorifying the past, but I can't help but think of the fun, awe-inspiring, fantastic world Richard Donner created for Superman and Superman II (which he directed most of before being fired and replaced, and most of his filming comprised Superman II), and how I didn't want those movies to end.

I couldn't wait for Superman Returns to end so, like Superman, I could go out into the sunlight and re-charge myself and get happy and energized again . . . the way blockbuster, summer movies are supposed to make you feel.

I agree, it needed more humor. Kate Bosworth is not edgy enough as Lois Lane and Kevin Spacey seemed uncomfortable or something. Parker Posey's character just annoyed me. I did like that they stayed true to the other movies and didn't make some crazy 2006 version that was out of left field. It's too long, they could have cut probably 30 minutes. I guess my expectations were so high that by the end I just felt like something was missing that I couldn't quite define.

The new Superman was alright, and he looked great in the suit. He played it very sweetly and not over the top.

Ok I'll admit it, I got a bit teary at the end. The movie made me feel like a kid again and want to believe in something and someone like Superman, and that is much needed in this world-at least for me it is. "Why the world needs Superman" and all that..

It was good, Brandon Routh did a great Christopher Reeve impersonation. I like Kate Bosworth physically over Margot Kidder, but she just wasn't Lois Lane for me. I loved how it built upon the first two Superman movies and I would go see another one.

Kevin Spacey's Lex Luthor was a little too dark for me, but Spacey played it well. But my only real main gripe of this movie, where's Otis?